Friday, September 23, 2011

Rosh Hashanah with The Shiksa

I've been on back-to-back business trips for the past few weeks, which means I've had zero time to get started on (or even think about) cooking for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the upcoming Jewish high holidays. To get me in the mood, I asked Tori Avey, who writes the wonderful blog The Shiksa in the Kitchen, about her high holiday habits. Tori, who converted to Judaism in 2010, describes herself as a culinary historian, and her blog explores both the past and present of Jewish cooking.

For those of you who know no Yiddish, shiksa means "non-Jewish woman" in Yiddish, and often it's a term slung around with claws - as in, "Why are the most eligible Jewish men always attracted to the shiksas?" (Which they are.)

Tori: My
family and I host the Rosh Hashanah meal, unless we’re in Israel or out of
town. That’s actually how I got my nickname “The Shiksa in the Kitchen” — I
started cooking our Rosh Hashanah and Passover meals close to 10 years ago,
long before I converted to Judaism. My annual Passover meal has close to 50
guests! Rosh Hashanah is a bit smaller, usually around 30. Cooking for that
many guests is tough, but I’ve found a few ways to make things easier. A week
before the meal, I create a “holiday game plan.” The game plan includes my menu,
the recipes I’ll be using, grocery list, cooking times, what time I should
start cooking each item, and how much of everything I’ll need. I also have a
list of the items we need for the blessings. I try to cook certain food items
ahead of time, things that do better after a night in the fridge (brisket,
certain marinated salads). I start two days before the holiday so I have a jump
start on everything. The more I can prepare in advance, the more I’ll enjoy the
actual holiday and spend time with my family and friends!

Yom
Kippur is a very quiet day in our home. We usually don’t have guests and we
keep the break fast meal very simple. This year we’ll be breaking fast with our
friends from Israel, who will be in town with us, so that will be fun.

E: Do you cook
the same things each year for the high holidays, or do you try to change things
up from year to year?

T: I
try to change things up every year, but there are certain dishes that are
expected. I always make matzo
ball soup — that’s a given for both Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Brisket is
also on the menu, but I tend to change the type of brisket that I’m serving
from year to year. This year, I’ll be serving brisket with a pomegranate
molasses marinade because I’m currently obsessed with homemade pomegranate
molasses. I’ll be posting the recipe for that next week.

T: My
Honey Apple Cake.
Everybody loves it! It’s full of moisture and flavor from the shredded apples,
and it’s dairy free! It also happens to be very pretty. I make it as a Bundt
cake, dust it with powdered sugar, and decorate it with drizzled white
frosting.

E: Challah: Do
you bake your own? Raisins or no raisins?

T: I
love baking my own! It wouldn’t feel like a holiday without the smell of
freshly baked challah in the air. The round challah is my favorite. I usually
make a few with raisins and a few without. I like to make the round shape using
the Linked
Loops method on my challah braiding blog. So pretty!

E: Do your
non-Jewish relatives join you for the high holidays? What do they think of the
whole thing?

T: Yes!
They love it. My mom often helps me in the kitchen. She’s my partner in crime.
I think I was destined to become Jewish, even though I wasn’t born that way…
when my mom married my dad, she walked down the aisle to “Sunrise, Sunset” from
Fiddler on the Roof. A hint of things to come, perhaps?

E: What
traditions did you inherit from your husband's family, and which did you
develop on your own after you married?

T: My
husband was born in Israel; he’s half Ashkenazi (Russian Jewish) and half
Sephardic (Israeli Jewish). His mom’s Jewish family goes back at least six
generations in Haifa, Israel. Because of the two different Jewish backgrounds
in our family, we cook what I like to call “Ashkephardic” style, blending
Ashkenazi and Sephardic cooking traditions to inspire new flavors. Ashkenazi
food is rich, comforting, stick-to-your ribs…brisket, cholent, gefilte fish.
Sephardic food is Mediterranean/Middle Eastern/Spanish inspired. It’s all
kosher, but the flavors are so diverse. It’s really fun to merge the two
cuisines. For example, our family cholent recipe has an Ashkenazic base (meat,
potatoes, barley, beans), but we spice it with Sephardic spices (cumin,
paprika, turmeric, cayenne) and we add eggs, which is a North African tradition
that we picked up in Israel.

I’ve
been cooking since I was a child; my mom taught me our family recipe for egg
noodles when I was 8 years old. In college, we used to have a “Tori Cooks
Night” where all my USC friends would gather and I’d cook dinner for everybody.
But I never went to culinary school, and I’m certainly not a “trained” chef in
the traditional sense. After I met my husband, I wanted to learn to cook the
foods he grew up with. Jewish food fascinated and inspired me. I enlisted the
help of family members and friends to teach me their favorite family recipes
and cooking methods. As I became more confident in the kitchen, I started
experimenting on my own and combining flavors to create new recipes. I also
studied vintage and antique cookbooks to find out how things were done “way back
then.” I’m a food history nerd.

Nowadays,
a lot of what I do in the kitchen is improvised — if something makes sense in my
imagination, I throw it together to see if it works. It doesn’t always. I’ve
had a few notorious flops (like a terrible pumpkin soup for Thanksgiving a few
years ago…yikes!). But if it turns out yummy, more than likely it ends up on
my blog. I only share recipes that I really, really love.

E: Which Rosh
Hashanah or Yom Kippur food do you most look forward to?

T: Okay,
I know this might sound so boring, but the Rosh Hashanah food I most look
forward to is matzo ball soup. I guess technically that’s a Passover food, but
we eat it every Rosh Hashanah, too. I bind the matzo balls with schmaltz and
mix in some fresh dill. I slow cook the chicken all day long with vegetables,
seasonings, and nutmeg to make a really flavorful stock. The chicken falls off
the bone when you take it out of the broth, it’s so tender. Then at the end of
cooking, I mix some fresh dill into the broth for an extra burst of flavor.
Holy moly. It’s the best!

For
Yom Kippur, we usually break the fast with a dairy meal, so it’s all about a
fresh toasted sesame bagel with thinly sliced lox and whipped cream cheese.
Doesn’t get any better than that!!